The ongoing drought in the western USA has resulted in continual declines in watershed inputs to the Great Salt Lake (GSL), leading to increasing salinity and lowered volume of the GSL. The decline in volume and increased salinity has had multiple consequences on the GSL ecosystem with aquatic taxa and dependent avian species exhibiting stress related impacts whereas some organisms such as the resident Artemia are demonstrating greater resiliency to salinity changes. Physiological changes such as alterations in per capita reproductive output, reduced size, mobilization of biochemical moderators of osmotic stress, shifts in dormancy termination, and alterations in temporal reproductive cycles illuminate the influence of increasing salinity on the Artemia population.
Within the broad scope of physiological transitions among the resident Artemia there are indications of adaptive responses that have afforded population level effective responses. Reproductive output has shifted temporally from the onset of cold inclement weather in fall to maximal production during late spring and early summer via exploitation of available algal resources. Termination of dormancy among Artemia cysts exhibited an alteration with dormancy ceasing in early summer thus significantly shortening the duration of diapause. Total population level reproductive output has resulted in densities of cysts similar to, or greater than, years exhibiting more ‘favorable’ conditions. Concerns remain about the effect of reduced volume on the GSL ecosystem, but presently the Artemia population is exhibiting resilience.